Lambda Letters Alert

Help Make California State University More Accountable
Now The Governor

Dear Friends,

Today, we ask you to write to the Governor in support of AB 1413. AB 1413 would establish tighter compensation rules and greater transparency in compensation for California State University Executives.

The Governor could make his decision on this bill any day now. So, please send your messages to him as soon as possible. Please also forward this alert to all your friends so as to maximize the supportive mail going to the Governor.

Please see the Background Information below and then send your message to the Governor.

For those of you who want to get right to it, click on the following link:

http://www.capwebworks.com/game/login.aspx?clientid=2097637190&clientproductid=2059701681&hdr=lambda

Then click on "09-13-07 Please sign AB 1413."

Please be sure to read the section below, entitled HOW TO SEND YOUR MESSAGES, to learn the way to respond to these alerts.

Note: THERE IS A WAY TO ENTER AND SAVE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS AND A PASSWORD WHEN YOU RESPOND TO OUR E-MAIL ALERTS. AFTER SAVING THEM ONCE YOU WILL NO LONGER NEED TO ADD YOUR NAME ADDRESS, ETC. EACH TIME YOU RESPOND TO AN ALERT. IN THE FUTURE YOU WILL ONLY NEED TO ENTER YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS AND PASSWORD AND THEN CLICK ON SUBMIT. SEE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW.

You may notice we have added the sample message back into the format of these alerts as the result of requests from our members. However, you do not need to cut and paste the message. Our e-mail service will do that automatically for you.

Note: if you are visually impaired and would like to receive future messages from Lambda Letters in larger print, please send us a message and put the words "Large Print" in the subject line of your message.

BACKGROUND

The California State University system was supposed to be an accessible and affordable system of higher education for any eligible California student who wanted to obtain a college education. Yet the average college eligible California student has to confront a horrible reality: our local students are being squeezed out of access to college in California. Year after year, more and more local California college-ready students simply cannot attend CSU because of skyrocketing tuition and related academic costs. It’s tragic that local students simply cannot afford the price of the ticket to college in California, regardless of their own efforts or those of their parents or guardians.

Disturbingly, as CA families continue to see college costs spiral out of reach for their children, upper level administrators give themselves generous compensation packages, salaries, university titles and campus positions worth millions and millions of state dollars. Safe from public scrutiny and accountability, former administrators have been granted unwarranted compensation packages upon their departure from the CSU system; compensation packages that have included thousands of dollars for undisclosed “special projects” that don’t require any actual work product.

Investigative journalists discovered that some former and some current CSU administrators have simply agreed to do something (who knows what) for the Chancellor, in exchange for millions of dollars in unwarranted compensation. Others had been granted things like full tenured professorships—without having taught a day in their lives and without meeting any of the other requirements for tenure. According to an expose in the San Francisco Chronicle “the CSU has handed out millions of taxpayer dollars to retiring and departing CSU executives in lucrative special pay and perk packages” that “some Trustees admitted they were not [even] aware of.” Legislators, educators and community members have been appalled to learn that many of these compensation deals all took place without public disclosure or sanction. Faculty have been particularly angered by revelations that millions of dollars in state monies given to former administrators could have funded entire campus programs that would have benefitted under-served student populations, especially populations of color. AB 1413 is one of our few legislative opportunities to put a stop to these despicable practices that ultimately rob our youth of an affordable education, demoralize faculty who have to undergo specific tenure and promotion requirements, and that mean needed resources for things like outreach and remedial programs simply aren’t there.

AB 1413 enacts stricter accountability guidelines and restrictions for executive “transition pay” and “trustee professorships”; requires the Trustees to approve all executive contracts in public, and to disclose all compensation and benefits—not just salary ; strengthens the “Code of Conduct” and ethics provisions of the Board of Trustees; requires the CA Post-secondary Education Commission (CPEC) to report on comparable executive compensation practices and report on CSU expenditures for instruction, administration, student services and other programs.” All of these features of AB 1413 contain important safeguards for significantly reducing the egregious waste of public dollars made possible by the secret compensation packages the Chancellor and Trustees have hammered out behind closed doors. A provision in AB 1413 that requires appropriate procedures be followed before an former administrator or Trustee is awarded a professorship is another important feature of this bill because it will reduce the likelihood that the Chancellor or the Board of Trustees can just give tenured positions to favored outgoing administrative employees. AB 1413 mandates that former CSU administrators cannot simply be given tenured professorships on CSU campuses and in cases where, tenure is appropriately awarded, former CSU administrators cannot be given salaries and benefits that far exceed what faculty who follow regular channels for promotion and retention earn. It is widely acknowledged that many low-income and moderately income California families simply can’t scrimp, save or borrow enough money to send their college eligible youth to the CSU. California families have to watch in horror as tuition rates continue to climb further beyond their grasp.

AB 1413 does much to solve these problems. Please write to the Governor. Urge him to sign AB 1413.

You may see a copy of AB 1413 by clicking on the following link:

Click here: AB 1413 Assembly Bill - AMENDED

SAMPLE MESSAGE

You will see the sample message when you follow the steps under How To Send Your Messages. You do not need to cut and paste the message. However, several people have asked to see a copy of the message in the alert itself. So the body of the message we ask you to send is as follows: (Note: The E-mail software will add the address and salutation when you send your messages.)

The Hon. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor
The California State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I urge you to sign AB 1413 when it comes before you from the legislature.

I believe that every dollar upper level administrators in the CSU system have given themselves in secretly negotiated compensation packages is a dollar that is not being used to make the state university system affordable and accessible to low –income and working families with college eligible young people who deserve to be competitive in the global economy.

As long as CSU administrators are left to conduct business behind closed doors to benefit themselves, they will continue to give themselves generous compensation packages, salaries, university titles and campus positions worth millions and millions of state dollars. Those are state dollars that are not available for university classrooms, outreach programs, reducing tuition costs and campus facilities.

AB 1413 is sound and needed legislation because it will require CSU Trustees to approve all executive contracts in public and to disclose all compensation and benefits that are granted to upper level administrators. This bill also strengthens the “Code of Conduct” and ethics provisions of the Board of Trustees. In addition, AB 1413 includes provisions for the CA Post-secondary Education Commission (CPEC) to report on comparable executive compensation practices and report on CSU expenditures for instruction, administration, student services and other programs.

California families and college-ready students pay the costs of the lucrative compensation packages outgoing CSU administrators have received upon their departure from the CSU system. These compensation packages that have included thousands of dollars for undisclosed “special projects” that don’t require any actual work product. The California legislature wants to restore some semblance of academic integrity to the tenure and promotion process at CSU campuses. The provision in AB 1413 that requires appropriate procedures be followed before an former administrator or Trustee is awarded a professorship is another important feature of this bill.

Meaningful transparency, clear and appropriate checks and balances and full disclosure of the compensation packages for CSU administrators is long overdue. Please sign AB 1413.

Sincerely,

HOW TO SEND YOUR MESSAGES

To send your message to the Governor,

1. Click on the address link found below.

2. Fill in your contact information on the page that appears.

NOTE: When you key in your address, key in your street address. Unfortunately, PO boxes won't work.

NOTE: IF YOU KEY IN YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS AND A PASSWORD IN THE TOP TWO BOXES AND THEN KEY IN YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, CITY, STATE, ZIP, AND E-MAIL ADDRESS IN THE LOWER BOXES YOUR PASSWORD WILL BE SAVED. IN THE FUTURE YOU WILL NEED ONLY TO KEY IN YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS AND PASSWORD.

3. Click on "Submit" to get to the list of current e-mail alerts.

4. Then click on "09-13-07 Please sign AB 1413."

NOTE: We now include a date in the letter title (as shown above) to make it easier to tell which is the latest alert.

After selecting the alert you want to respond to, scroll to the bottom of the window and click on "Choose Letter".

5. When you are asked what recipients you want the letters to go to, do NOT click on the boxes next to every legislator listed. The legislators who should get messages have been preselected.

6. Then scroll to the bottom of the window and click on "E-mail Letters."

7. When you get a message asking; "Are you sure you want to e-mail this letter?" click on OK.

That will send your messages.

Here is the link to use:

http://www.capwebworks.com/game/login.aspx?clientid=2097637190&clientproductid=2059701681&hdr=lambda.